Oh, happy day – we hit 100,000 words last chapter! So many milestones lately.
Three reasons this chapter came so late: (1) I needed to update somewhere else, (2) a certain sequel I promised to come out around this time of year is in the works and required my immediate attention, and (3) I've only had one day off in a week. But huzzah. Here it is!
Shout out to teamBLAZE, A Guest, MikariStar, and CAPJHMPAgirl for the reviews last chapter! Thanks a bunch, and I'll keep the new chapters coming for ya!
Also, because I've fallen behind, I'm hoping to do multiple updates today. For anyone jumping in, this is the first update since November 19th. Thanks for reading!
Hell Freezes Over
Vaughn rhythmically clicked his pen, reading the latest Harvest Hobbies headline. 'New Sponsor Backs Funland Amusement Park.' He frowned as he skimmed the article. They talked about construction plans and future opening dates in the coming years. Roller coasters and food stands and attractions where a decrepit, little farm used to be. Vaughn scrolled down to the image of the newly purchased land where a bulldozer was levelling a barn. In fine printed italics underneath, the caption read: 'Funland Amusement Park's starting location in Leaf Valley.'
He sat back in his chair and swiveled around. Mr. Hamilton had returned from corporate without his usual jokes, cryptically warning of a visitor on the way. Today was the day, and everyone was shaking like leaves. Even those who were dim enough not to care or realize what had been going on were quite aware that something was not right if a prospective buyer of their company was coming in to 'just have a look around.'
Their boss was powerless in the palm of this mystery buyer's hand. So what did that make them?
Hamilton stepped out of his office lightly bouncing on his heels. He cleared his throat, and attention was given to him. "Everyone! Yes, everybody, hi… um… let's see…"
Louis, Tina, and Luke heard his projecting speech voice and poked their noses out of their respective offices. Alice picked up her nail file, and Molly emerged from the break room with a full mug of coffee.
"There have been some rumors circling lately," Hamilton absently rubbed the back of his hair, looking a little nervous, but his smile was as chipper as ever. He clapped his hands. "Well! Some are false, some are true. I wanted to let everyone know the nice, sponsor man is in the lobby, and he'll be up in a few minutes. Best behavior! Big smiles! Today's a big, big day for us! Let's make a good impression… for our sake."
He quickly made his exit for the elevator, ignoring the questioning glances and worried frowns. Once the doors closed, the panic started to seep through.
"What's going to happen to us?!" Rod held his head. He already had too close a call to give his job up now.
"Are we all going to lose our jobs…?" Louis asked.
"The man's a buyer, right? He's going to buy us out?" Tina wrung her hands. Luke gave her a sad pat on the back for comfort.
"Perhaps," Allen tried to reason with what he knew, stroking his chin. "This mystery buyer could just be taking new ownership of Persuasive Papers. It might not be the end for us, but our superiors still have quite a bit to worry about with their management positions being overhauled."
There was a hum of approval for this theory.
Allen shrugged his shoulders, swiveling his chair back towards his keyboard. "I vote nobody panics until we're given a legitimate reason to worry about our job security. Like if it's Gill's time of the month again—"
"Alright, alright!" Gill snapped, talking over him to drown out the insult. He ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up in odd places. "But you're right. For now. I'll keep my doubts to myself."
"I agree with Allen," Rod cheerily fist pumped. "Maybe the new guy will be really nice! And he'll give us bonuses!"
The elevator chimed and all heads turned.
"Everything is going," a young man quickly stepped out, waving his hands around the room like no one else was in it. "We'll completely redo the floors, knock out this wall… fix that ceiling, good Lord. And we'll put my hot tub where that cardboard box is – are you getting this, Freya?"
"Yes, sir," the tall woman behind him was slightly hunched at his side. She carried a pen and pad of paper, diligently scribbling down every word he said. Her long, swooping hair was shielding most of her face, but when she stood straight up, emerald eyes and a figure Victoria's Secret would kill for were revealed.
"Guess you spoke too soon…" Alice muttered to Rod who was paling.
Hamilton quickly interrupted the little guy, jumping forward to lead the two people. "And here we are! We have our diligent employees working out here on the main floor. We'll be in the conference room right this way… Everyone! A happy, Persuasive Papers greeting to Mr. Taylor!"
Only crickets sounded. Eventually, lackluster applause was given to the man beside Hamilton. Vaughn was leaning over his cubicle, taking a different approach. "But he's just a kid."
Mr. Taylor was a whopping 4'2" and most of it was hair, all spiked to the ceiling in yellow points. He was wearing a t-shirt and short combo typical of any little boy with trainers. He crossed his arms over his chest, glaring Vaughn down. He spoke in a cracking, pubescent voice. "Oh, yeah? And what were you doing when you were twelve? Yeah, that's what I thought."
Taylor snapped his fingers and his secretary Freya jumped into attention. He motioned for her to take notes. "Tell this fat fellow Ham that he should keep his employees under control. Free will and thinking… despicable."
"Uh… it's Hamilton?" Obviously in earshot for all of this, the boss twiddled his thumbs.
Taylor's frown deepened, not even looking at him. He sighed and beckoned to Freya. "Let's get this over with."
"What's with everyone having a hot secretary?!" Luke whispered, shrugging his shoulders to Tina who was mirroring his action.
"Yeah, I want one…" Hamilton puffed out his cheeks in disappointment as he followed the pair to the conference room.
Molly pouted at the insult, but she figured it was better to be ignored than groped.
The door closed. The employees of Persuasive Papers looked to each other, completely at a loss.
"Well, we're doomed," Dan announced, leaning his elbows on his pillow.
"We're all getting the boot!" Tina wailed.
"I've seen the world out there – I don't want to give anyone my pot of gold!" Rod cried.
"I'm being replaced with a hot tub!" Basil protectively hugged his box.
"We should do what Mr. Hamilton says!" Louis tried to take the lead. "If we calm down and show how awesome our company is, maybe we can persuade him to change his mind about us?"
Alice soundly slapped him across the face. "This is no time for puns!"
"It wasn't intentional!" Louis held his cheek in shock. "I swear!"
Vaughn watched as Molly made quick steps to his desk, entered his cubicle, grabbed his tie, and pulled him to the floor. Just when he was thinking she had finally given up on whatever flirtation-ship they were pulling and was just going for it, Molly sat on her heels across from him with a serious expression. Not that he… wanted anything but that, of course.
"What's the plan?" She whispered.
When Molly was only getting a wide eyed look in response, she saw she hadn't let go of his tie and was partially choking him. She quickly released him, helping to straighten him out despite getting swatted to quit.
"Plan? What plan?" Vaughn wheezed, rubbing his neck.
"The plan to get rid of Taylor!" Molly insisted. She pointed a stern finger at him. "I know you're not going to take this quietly. We need to get rid of him."
"What makes you think I've got the answers?" Vaughn glowered, angry his flush wasn't receding.
Molly didn't seem to notice or pegged it from yanking on his tie. "You're the plan guy! If anyone can pull this off, we can! So?"
Vaughn was staring up, so Molly turned to see what he was looking at. Their gazes lowered as Gill awkwardly scrunched down beside Molly, holding his knees and trying to act natural. He cleared this throat. "So? What's the plan?"
"What are you doing here?!" Vaughn asked, his voice still not rising above a whisper.
"You're the plan guy," Gill repeated Molly's earlier sentiment, avoiding her current gawking. "You're obnoxious, reckless, and quite frankly an ass. Which is what we're going to need to get Taylor out of here. I… I want him gone."
"Are you telling me…?" Molly's mouth was quirking into a teasing smile. "That you want to pull off a prank with us? You?"
Gill cringed and scooted his knees closer to his face. "If… if that's what it takes to get him to leave… very well."
"Well, well, well!" Molly giggled, biting her tongue. "Doesn't it feel pretty cold in here? Considering hell just froze over."
"Cut that out!" Gill scolded. He faced Vaughn. "So what do you know about Harvest Hobbies? This is it, right?"
Though the turn of events was especially bizarre, Vaughn coughed into his hand, looking between his snitching rival and partner in crime. "Well, right off the bat, I told you so."
Gill rolled his eyes.
"But this kid's been all over the news," Vaughn took a turn for the serious, explaining all of his research. "From what I've read, Taylor got his start when he was ten with a seed and tree business. He's ruthless. He took out his own parents' crop supply store in less than a year."
"Sheesh…" Molly shivered.
"He got into stocks and made it big," Vaughn continued. He reached atop his desk and provided Molly with his little address book with the notes on the subject. Gill peered over her shoulder to see, too. "He started Harvest Hobbies as a vacation and travel spot company, but it evolved into resorts fast. He's been buying up properties left and right."
"Echo Town? Mineral Town? Harmonica Town?" Gill asked, his eyebrows raising.
Molly gasped, pointing at the Castanet property Taylor bought. "That's right next to where my sister lives!"
Gill glared hard at Vaughn with obvious worry. "These are all places we've made brochures for…"
Vaughn took the book back, nodding his head. "Brochures aimed to claim farmers. City slickers suckered into an ideal country lifestyle. But Taylor—"
"If Taylor buys them all, we don't have a business…" Gill concluded. "It's easy enough to buy us out and get rid of us entirely, thereby going after the villages individually. He'll force them to sell by cutting their resources, or they'll gladly sell to him without knowing he's going to bring everybody and their cousin to the area."
"We're going to be obsolete," Molly's hand covered her mouth.
"If we stop selling the residential properties to civilians and Taylor can outbid them, it's all commercialized," Vaughn finished.
"He'll get his resorts, and those towns will be run down to stock hotels and water slides," Gill bit his thumb in agreement. "How far along is he? Has it already started?"
Vaughn shrugged. "Harvest Hobbies has a claim to all of those lands I listed, but they've only started demolition just this morning in Leaf Valley. From what I know of."
"And that was a family farm…" Molly sadly slouched.
Vaughn found himself rising to the occasion. "Look, I don't know how to stop all of this and save our jobs and all of those towns… yet."
Gill and Molly perked up in interest.
"But… no more of this polite… stuff. Taylor knows exactly what he's doing, and we know what he's up to. So… I vote the cake."
"Ooo, I've been wanting to do that one!" Molly clapped in excitement. "We'll give him what for!"
Gill wasn't following. "What's the purpose of sending an 'I hate you' cake? It's certainly not going to change his mind about selling our office for scrap space or giving up all of that real estate."
"No, it's not," Vaughn nodded. He leaned forward and made his voice even lower. "It's a declaration of war. We're not going to bow out and let him do this, and we need to make it loud and clear. None of this Hamilton schmoozing. We don't like him or what he's doing, and he's going to know it."
Molly bit her lip, looking to Gill for approval. He seemed aloof to the whole thing, but he held out his hand. "Fair enough. It's good for now, but we're going to need something big. A real plan. And soon. You understand that, right?"
"Yeah, yeah," Vaughn waved him off. "But right now, we cake him."
"Yay!" Molly laughed, slapping her hand atop Gill's.
Vaughn just stared at their hand pile. "No. We are not in a high school rom com. Get out."
Molly stuck out her tongue, and Gill grumbled about him being an ass. They stood and brushed themselves clear of any staples and dust.
"You've got all of the stuff?" Molly asked.
"Yeah, we can assemble it in the break room," Vaughn nodded. He opened the bottom drawer of his desk and handed her a can of frosting.
Gill looked incredulously between them. "Wh… what?! You just happen to have the ingredients for a prank cake in your desk?!"
"Like a boy scout," Molly teased with a wink.
"We were going to give it to ya for your next birthday, but… Happy Early Birthday," Vaughn smirked and carried the necessary pan under his arm.
Gill just watched them go, partially frozen. Vaughn tossed a pack at him, and he caught it before it hit him in the face.
"Come on, prank grunt – start blowing those up!" He called, having to shout over the other employees screaming in the ensuing chaos over their jobs.
Gill looked down skeptically. "Tube balloons?"
"Your revenue disgusts me," Taylor said, pushing open the door to the conference room. "Freya, we're leaving."
"Yes, sir," she briskly trailed after him.
"W-wait! Was that it? Didn't you want a full tour? Meet everyone? Hear about the families they have to feed?" Hamilton begged behind them.
"Maybe… I have a change of plans. Freya," Taylor snapped his fingers, cuing his assistant to write. Her pen was poised at the ready. Hamilton brightened with renewed hope. "Sack the renovation plans. We'll sell this office floor to lepers. Let's go."
Hamilton wailed in agony and dived to the floor. Freya gasped, scandalized, as he clung to Taylor's sneakers. "Please! It'll break Vivi's heart to see this business go! She can't live without her verified Persuasive Papers twitter account!"
"Cute," Taylor stuck out his tongue. "Still don't care! Now get your old person cooties off of me!"
"Mr. Taylor?" Molly sweetly asked, appearing in front of him. It was agreed she should be the one to approach him, since she was better at handling kids and faking a sweetness only rivalled by a sincere Candace.
"What do you want? Who are you?" Taylor wrinkled his nose at her, staring straight up.
"Yeah, what are you doing?" Hamilton tearfully looked up as well.
"I'm dreadfully sorry, Mr. Taylor. I'm Mr. Hamilton's secretary. Representing those here at the office, we have all pitched in to prepare a present for your visit here today," she smiled with charm.
Freya cut her off, stepping in front of her boss. Her smile was much more phony and threatening. "I'm sorry, but Mr. Taylor has already expressed his opinion of this office, and he wishes to leave. Right now."
"No, I want to see the present!" Taylor shoved her aside. "Give it to me so I can get out!"
"But Mr. Taylor!" Freya insisted.
Allen intervened, sensing mischief. He took Freya's hand and spun her out of the way. "What are you, a size zero? Because you have zero flaws."
"Right this way, Mr. Taylor!" Molly chirped, directing him to the left away from the elevator.
Gill, obviously sweating and stony faced, wheeled up a cart where a delightfully frosted cake sat with a waiting knife. He nodded once and quickly backed away.
"Oh," Taylor looked it over with apprehension. "I do like cake…"
"Will you do the honors, sir?" Molly carefully handed him the sharp knife.
Taylor stood over the cake, not noticing as Molly backed up to a safe distance. "Well… is it chocolate?"
"Whatever flavor you want, hon," Molly grinned.
"Cake?! Yay! I got dibs on the first pi—!" Luke was making a mad run for it, but Gill tackled him to the ground out of the way.
It was just in time. Taylor's excited face leered over the cake as the knife sunk in. It popped the balloons inside, exploding the entire frosting ruse all over the vicinity.
"Mr. Taylor!" Freya screamed, breaking away from Allen's advances and running to his side. She hesitated when she saw his white splattered mask of a face.
"See, you're just a kid," Vaughn appeared over Alice's cubicle where he was shielding himself. "Your little entrepreneur thing is cute, but you can take that out the door. Our boss has to play nice, but we don't. We're not getting run over. Get out."
"Yeah, get out, short person!" Luke, who was very bad at name-calling, taunted.
"Loser!" Tina booed.
"Your goggles don't even go with your hair!" Rod goaded. Allen just shook his head.
"You don't even go here!" Dan shouted. All heads turned to him. "I saw my opportunity, and I took it."
Still with his dignity intact, Taylor snapped his fingers. He pointed at the elevator and marched to it with a flustered Freya in pursuit. The elevator doors closed behind them, and the workers were left in a silent aftermath.
That instantly erupted into a party.
"Woohoo!" Molly cheered with a jump.
"Showed them!" Allen agreed.
Alice flipped her hair sassily over her shoulder, helping Gill to his feet as he was still on the ground after taking Luke down.
"I liked that better than pretending everything was okay…" Louis admitted.
"Hey, dibs on that frosting!" Luke crawled over his peers for the pan.
"Luke, don't eat the balloon pieces!" Tina gasped, taking the faux cake away from him.
Molly gave Vaughn a high five. "Nice cake prank! It was good to see it in action. What's with that face?"
"It was fun…" Vaughn agreed, sobering up. "But I still don't know how we're going to actually stop him from getting his way. It's a money war, and that's something we just… don't have."
She nudged his arm with a smile. "Hey. Consider this a victory over the first battle. You've got plenty of time to play business chess. You'll think of something! And the whole office is in, too. We'll do whatever we can to stick around… Tina said it first. We're family!"
Vaughn put on a smile, and she ran off to get some frosting before Luke ate it all. Still… Vaughn was second-guessing this decision. They definitely got their point across, but was it worth it? They succeeded in angering Taylor, but the little stock star just might speed up his plans. They'd just be ruined faster.